16 January 2012
Miss Marple's Tea Room
382 Mount Dandenong Tourist Road, Sassafras
Cuisine: English
We had an overseas visitor so decided to make a trip to the Dandenong Mountains and to Miss Marple's Tea Room for lunch. Knowing that Miss Marple's attracts tourists on weekends and that it does not take bookings, we opted to go on a Monday. Surprisingly, it was busy. However, we only had to wait five minutes in the little sitting room before our table was ready.
We go to Miss Marple's for the ambience of an English cottage a la Laura Ashley and the Agatha Christie memorabilia. The staff wear traditional black English-style uniforms with aprons. The service was pleasant; all the waitresses who served us were smiling and friendly. The place is small and they try to fit in as many tables as possible, so when packed with diners, it is more cramped than cosy - difficult if you want to move around but comfortable once seated and you are able to have your own conversations without any intrusions from the surrounding tables.
We ordered Cheese and Herb bread, two lots of Fish and Chips, Beef Cottage Pie, Chicken Cottage Pie and Quiche Lorraine. Drinks were milkshakes, Teapot of Taylors "Yorkshire Gold" tea and caffè latte. The Cheese and Herb bread was good so we ordered another serve. The fish was Blue Grenadier which I had a taste of and found to be a touch fishy, the batter was good without being too thick but the chips were fairly ordinary. However, the others enjoyed their fish and chip meals. My meal was the Beef Cottage Pie and for comparison, I tasted the Chicken Cottage Pie ordered by our visitor. I prefered the beef pie to the chicken pie as the beef pie had more taste, whereas I found the chicken pie ordinary and the meat a bit dry. However, our visitor prefered the chicken pie to the beef pie. I don't have to say that taste is a very subjective thing! The pie serves were small, especially considering they were mains. The Quiche Lorraine looked like a burnt mess next to the chips. It was not the usual look of creamy egg and bacon custard in a pastry crust. Miss Marple's version has the outside of the quiche so brown it looked burnt. The tea had a good medium strength with a nice flavour and aftertaste.
Overall, a nice place to take out of town or international visitors for the English-style environment.
Taste Rating: 6/10 Value Rating: 6/10
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| Cheese and Herb Bread |
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| Cheese and Herb Bread |
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| Fish and Chips |
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| Fish and Chips |
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| Beef Cottage Pie |
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| Chicken Cottage Pie |
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| Quiche Lorraine |
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| Yorkshire Gold tea |
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| Caffè Latte |
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| Teapot Collection |
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| Miss Marple's Tea Room - a quaint English cottage |
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